Saluting Kevin Kehily: GAA pays tribute to Cork's first Rebel rock
Kehily passed away peacefully at his home last Sunday, aged 74.
Mickey Ned O'Sullivan remembers it as the early 1970s, probably the winter of 1972.
Snow fell relentlessly and the windchill barely rose above negative figures. Himself, Kevin Kehily, along with three or four other Physical Education students from their course at Strawberry Hill in London, had been dispatched to Plas y Brenin in Snowdonia, Wales. For five days. With one tent.
O'Sullivan was a Kerry footballer at the time, Kehily a Cork footballer. As day one rolled into day two, and on into day three, the colour of their county jerseys and their respective allegiances didn't seem to matter much.
"Once we survived that, we knew we'd survive anything," smiled O'Sullivan. "The cold, oh, the cold."
Joe Jagger, Mick's father, was their PE tutor at the time, and took to the mountain with them.
"It used to get dark around half four and that was it then, just ourselves in the tent," recalled O'Sullivan of a friendship forged as much in ice as in the fire of shared Munster final experiences.
They spent four years together in London, studying there in the absence of a course in Ireland.
Living on the same Church Road in Teddington, they were in the same class, studying the same subjects. They played a little rugby too. Even won an All-Ireland sevens medal together.
"We were very close," said O'Sullivan, who captained Kerry to All-Ireland success a year after graduating, in 1975. They beat Cork well that year in the Munster final, as they often did around that time. Yet their friendship endured.
"For 60 minutes you went hell for leather for your team and your county and then when it was over, that was it," said O'Sullivan, who later managed Kerry. "The friendship outlasted all of that."
Kevin Kehily passed away peacefully at his home last Sunday, aged 74. A life of rich experiences lived in full technicolour stretched out behind him.
"He'd be a kind of a legend around here," says Donie Keane, a Newcestown clubmate, longtime administrator and neighbour of the Kehily family. "The words 'great' and 'star' have been greatly devalued because anyone who puts on a jersey now is called a star but he was a genuine star. And humble with it."
From player - he won three Munster SFC titles and two All-Stars with Cork - to physical trainer - he trained the Cork hurlers to three All-Irelands in a row in the mid 1970s - Kehily virtually did it all. But for a break taken in 1973 to study in the UK, he'd surely have been part of that year's All-Ireland winning Cork football team as well.
He could play in a variety of positions but will be remembered for winning two All-Stars in the full-back line, in 1980 and 1982.
"I was talking to a fella this morning who played inter-county football against Kevin and he said all he usually saw was the back of his boots after Kevin ploughed through him and went off with the ball," said Keane. "A very committed fella, very determined."
O'Sullivan remembers Kehily's move to full-back coming out of necessity as Cork sought to solve a specific problem posed by Kerry during the mid '70s.
"He actually started as a wing-back," said O'Sullivan. "It was only when Bomber Liston appeared on the scene that Cork put him full-back, to try to curb the Bomber. Kevin was well up for that challenge. Bomber was the bigger man but Kevin could always hold his own.
"As people will tell you, a very determined fella, physically strong. I wouldn't say he was particularly tall, maybe a bit shy of six-foot and Bomber was six-three, and a big six-three, but that suited Kevin fine. He was very skilful, very disciplined. Always fit. He kept himself in great shape."
Having two feet to kick off helped Kehily greatly. He had his father to thank for that one.
"All the brothers were taught to be two-footed by the father, as far as I know," said Keane. "That was the story, that the father used to take the boot from the good leg and you'd have to use it only on the bad leg above in the field, when you were kicking about.
"He was the third member of the family to play for cork. His brother, Frank, played with Cork and captained Cork. Another brother, Dermot, played with Cork as well. So he was the third to play senior for Cork. They were all hardly fellas."
If things had been only slightly different, Kehily could have ended up playing for that all conquering Cork senior hurling team of the 1970s, instead of training them. He was a talented dual player.
"He was an inter-county standard hurler, absolutely," said Keane. "He was as good as a lot of the defenders on that Cork hurling team. He played with us for the club, Newcestown, and the division, Carbery, for years and years. It would have been very easy to ignore the call of the divisional team but he always turned out, in both codes."
Dr Con Murphy, team doctor for Cork teams from 1976, has a similar take.
"He would have been well capable of playing hurling for Cork too but he stuck with the football," said Dr Con. "He was a great man and a vital part of that three-in-a-row team. We wouldn't have won it without him.
"Funnily enough, my first ever day with the Cork footballers was at the opening of Pairc Ui Chaoimh (1976) and I was standing on the touchline as doctor because there was nowhere else to sit. I remember distinctly Kevin Kehily and Brendan Lynch both landed at my feet! Brendan Lynch was a classmate of mine so that was a kind of tricky one at the time."
Comparisons between Kehily and Meath's no nonsense full-back of the 1980s Mick Lyons have been made.
"They both had great physical presence," agreed Dr Con. "By no means dirty but they'd let you know they were there. But look, Kevin could play it any way you wanted it. He could catch the ball clean out over a forward's head and come away with it and clear it. He was as good a full-back as ever played, that would be my opinion on it."
Lying in repose at Crowley’s Funeral Home, Ballincollig on Tuesday evening from 6pm to 7.30pm for visitation. Requiem Mass on Wednesday at 12 noon at the Church of St Mary and St John, Ballincollig which can be viewed on https://www.churchservices.tv/stmjballincollig. Funeral afterwards to St Oliver’s Cemetery.
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